As many as 30 positions in the Gorham School Department have been proposed for elimination or a reduction in hours in a preliminary $29.2 million school budget.
Superintendent Ted Sharp’s proposed budget would eliminate the equivalent of 12.5 full-time teachers, eight educational technicians and one speech specialist. The budget does not include funding the position of White Rock School Principal Margaret Evans, who is retiring.
The proposed reductions would save about $1.1 million. However, it is possible some positions may be restored with the addition of federal stimulus money.
Wages and benefits account for $21.8 million, or 74 percent, of the total budget, followed by debt service, at $2.5 million, or 9 percent.
A year ago, 23 positions, including three top administrators, were cut in a $29.6 million budget. Matt Robinson, chairman of the Gorham Town Council, has said recently he doesn’t want a budget that increases taxes.
School and teachers’ union officials were mum this week about the budget. Michael Lortie, president of the Gorham Teachers Association, declined comment on Sharp’s budget because revenue figures are not available.
“It’s premature to comment on the story right now,” said Lortie, a teacher at the Village Elementary School.
Middle school teacher Kelly Littlefield, the previous president of the local teachers association, also declined comment.
The Gorham School Committee will review the preliminary budget in an all-day, public workshop Saturday, March 21, in a conference room in Sharp’s office in the Gorham Municipal Center, 75 South St. School Committee members will hear reports from department administrators and have the opportunity to question Sharp.
“I have no comment until I see more details,” Kathy Garrard, a School Committee member, said Wednesday.
Sharp hopes to have general purpose aid figures from the state’s Department of Education by March 31. His preliminary budget is based on last year’s state subsidy of $16.3 million. Sharp said Wednesday a $340,000 cut in state aid earlier this year was restored by the state through federal stimulus funds, and that a similar curtailment was unlikely for the new fiscal year. His preliminary budget, however, projects losing the $340,000.
Monday, Sharp and other superintendents met with Education Commissioner Sue Gendron. “The meeting was helpful, but they have no actual figures yet,” Sharp said by e-mail.
The school department is losing a significant source of revenue this year after the Gorham Town Council eliminated earlier this month the town’s middle school impact fee. That fee, charged to builders of new homes, had been generating about $200,000 a year.
The preliminary budget doesn’t include money for laptop computers, as the state program expands to high schools. Sharp said some local money would be required, but participation in the laptop program isn’t a state mandate.
Sharp said in his preliminary budget rollout March 11 that pay-to-play and other fees for athletics were discussed but were not built into the new budget. He also said parking fees at the high school were considered, but also are not in the budget.
An existing elementary principal and an assistant will also oversee White Rock School in place of Evans, who announced her retirement in a letter dated March 9 and read by Sharp in last week’s meeting.
Sharp praised Evans’ skills and talents.
“This is a big loss,” Sharp said.
However, the principal’s position will likely be restored when a new kindergarten through Grade 5 school, replacing White Rock School, opens in 2011.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
